Tourist arrivals steady

Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 22.8 per cent to 192,841 in March from a year earlier driven by arrivals from India and China, the data from tourist promotion office showed.
In the first quarter of 2016, arrivals were up 22.1 per cent to 584,818.

Arrivals from South Asia were up 28.6 per cent to 44,175 in March 2016, with Indian arrivals up 38.2 per cent to 30,170 from a year earlier, while arrivals in the first quarter rose 32.2 per cent to 85,624.

Chinese arrivals rose 40 per cent to 19,645 in March.

Visitors from the United Kingdom was up 32 per cent to 44,813 with overall arrivals from Western Europe up 22.6 per cent to 69,972.

German arrivals rose 6.3 per cent to 16,264 while arrivals from France rose 11 per cent to 11,175. Italian visitors rose 30 per cent to 2,683.